On Epic: Just Imagine
I’m with Eldredge that to walk with God we need to find ourselves in his Story. It makes no sense to confess allegiance and trust in God when in practice we inhabit competing narratives from our surrounding culture.
But what if we are? What if we find ourselves in the wrong story? How do we get back on track? How do we switch narratives in the first place?
Here we'll explore one particular approach, that of John Eldredge in his little book Epic. For my own reflections, see Inhabiting God's Story, where I'm exploring these questions more broadly. See also chapter 1 of my little book Reality According to the Scriptures: Initial Reflections (forthcoming), where I show the broader context within which "inhabiting God's Story" makes sense.
The Conversion of the Imagination
So, how can we find ourselves in God's Story? Eldredge, C. S. Lewis and others would help us precisely through the power of stories. Stories have the power to draw us into the world they portray. They awaken our senses and can wake us up to reality—to the extent, or course, that they are true to reality. In this way, stories that are true to God's Story (to reality according to the Scriptures) can help us find ourselves in God's world.
Through storytelling, Lewis and others help us explore new horizons of possibility. Through the power of stories, they challenge our imaginations and help us realize that there's more going on than meets the eye—even our Christian eyes. In this way, they help us rediscover and reinhabit reality according to the Scriptures.
So far, so good. But not all stories can equip us to spot falsehood when we see it. So I'm not onboard with how far Eldredge goes with stories and fairytales: how far he takes the analogy between reality (the narrative-world of the Bible) and stories in general.
Nevertheless, I think that what he's doing here needs to be done, and his approach is great. So let me explain what I think he's doing in order to get some clarity on this and point out the dangers I see.
A Brilliant Approach
Eldredge's whole premise in Epic is that in order to make sense of our lives we need to know the story of which we're a part. He then offers an excellent telling of the Bible's account of reality, and he encourages readers to embrace the true nature of things by finding themselves in that narrative-world.
At least, that's his intention. But he has such faith in the power of stories to stir us and wake us up to the wonder of it all, that I think he gets stuck in stories, rather than use them to help us embrace reality according to the Scriptures themselves. Now, stories are good in themselves, and not only when they serve as a way to get to the gospel message. But if our aim is to find ourselves in God's Story, then I think Epic needs a little revision on this front.
Tell Me a Story: Awaken My Heart
Taking his cue from Daniel Taylor and others, he says that stories nourish us because they show us what it might look like to play our part in the true Story we're living. "We might know that life is a journey, but then we see what that journey will require of us by watching Frodo's story. We may know that courage is a virtue but then we find ourselves longing to be courageous having watched Maximus in Gladiator."
And I would agree. At this point I would only add that life, according to the Scriptures, is not just a journey in general: it is a very particular journey in which virtue means something and not something else (it might in fact be a vice in another story).
I'm still with Eldredge here though. Tell me if this doesn't capture something of what it's like to be the people of God in biblical faith—the faith of the prophets, the apostles, and ours too in the already and not yet:
Eldredge is all about the heart. He's all about waking the dead, and the wild hearts of men and women in the church. And what is the gospel if not good news that restores hope to our hearts?
I agree with his critics on various points, but I still think he got the thrust and the heart of the Story quite right. In fact, I'm a Christian today because of the way Eldredge reframed the gospel as the Story of life itself. I just think this conversion of the imagination needs to go further and deeper than stories can take us. It is the truth that sets us free (John 8:32), and keeps us free.
Now, Eldredge does give us the truth in Epic. His account of the biblical story is wonderful. He gives us truth that sets us free, but then he sends us to the movies to nurture that freedom. And that's not gonna cut it. It's in the biblical Story he so eloquently tells that we must remain.
Yes, but...
Of course stories can nurture us in our walk with God. The Lord Jesus himself taught through stories. The stories we tell ourselves can capture something of the nature of things. But are we then to trust our own stories to lead us in this journey with God–a journey with such insurmountable odds? That doesn't seem wise to me.
Although, we do have the Holy Spirit. And God can reveal himself and his will and his ways however he wants to. So, I suppose it depends on what story we're talking about.
I would agree with this: "Story is the way we figure things out, it's the nature of reality, it's the language of the heart." But you would have to qualify things quite a bit before I could agree with this: "Our stories give us all of our best answers to life's big questions... and to most of the small ones as well."
Reality’s details aren't optional. We can’t substitute the details in The Lord of the Rings for those of reality, even though that story helps us connect with reality affectively, at deeper levels than propositions could, and helps us see things about the nature of things we otherwise might have missed. The biblical Story of reality has its own plot, its own characters, situations, predicaments, and its own ending. The details are key to finding our way in God's world. Let's not confuse them.
In Conclusion
Sure, I'll go through the wardrobe. I'll enjoy a good story, and take in all the truth and goodness and beauty it has to offer. But what’s really going on is not Narnia (not exactly, anyway!), or Gladiator, or The Lord of the Rings.
God too has a wardrobe. And it leads to the Story where all of our storytelling takes place. For God's people, it is his Story that tests the truth and the goodness and usefulness of the stories we tell ourselves.
It’s not just imagine. It’s God’s world I want to imagine! It’s his world I want.
Some Sources
Yes, but...
Of course stories can nurture us in our walk with God. The Lord Jesus himself taught through stories. The stories we tell ourselves can capture something of the nature of things. But are we then to trust our own stories to lead us in this journey with God–a journey with such insurmountable odds? That doesn't seem wise to me.
Although, we do have the Holy Spirit. And God can reveal himself and his will and his ways however he wants to. So, I suppose it depends on what story we're talking about.
I would agree with this: "Story is the way we figure things out, it's the nature of reality, it's the language of the heart." But you would have to qualify things quite a bit before I could agree with this: "Our stories give us all of our best answers to life's big questions... and to most of the small ones as well."
Reality’s details aren't optional. We can’t substitute the details in The Lord of the Rings for those of reality, even though that story helps us connect with reality affectively, at deeper levels than propositions could, and helps us see things about the nature of things we otherwise might have missed. The biblical Story of reality has its own plot, its own characters, situations, predicaments, and its own ending. The details are key to finding our way in God's world. Let's not confuse them.
In Conclusion
Sure, I'll go through the wardrobe. I'll enjoy a good story, and take in all the truth and goodness and beauty it has to offer. But what’s really going on is not Narnia (not exactly, anyway!), or Gladiator, or The Lord of the Rings.
God too has a wardrobe. And it leads to the Story where all of our storytelling takes place. For God's people, it is his Story that tests the truth and the goodness and usefulness of the stories we tell ourselves.
It’s not just imagine. It’s God’s world I want to imagine! It’s his world I want.
Some Sources
- The Essentials of Christian Thought: Seeing Reality through the Biblical Story, by Roger E. Olson. Here's the lecture series. On a cautionary note: Olson warns, for example, that the Star Wars series gives us "a popularized and mythical version of Manicheism for the masses."
- For guidance analyzing the worldviews and metaphysics implicit in movies and other cultural works and popular culture, see Ted Turnau's Popologetics: Popular Culture in Christian Perspective.